Stroke is one form of brain injury which is the primary cause of long term disability, with over 5 million stroke survivors in the United States and an associated cost of more than $50 billion in 2006 for care of ischemic (blood clot) stroke victims alone. The NHLBI's Framingham Study noted that in ischemic stroke survivors who were at least 65 years of age, the following disabilities were observed 6 months after the stroke: hemiparesis (50%); inability to walk without some assistance (30%); dependence in activities of daily living (26%); aphasia (19%); depressive symptoms (35%); and institutionalization in a nursing home (26%). The mean lifetime costs of ischemic stroke for an individual patient was estimated to be $140,048 in the United States, including inpatient care, rehabilitation and any follow-up care necessary for long-term deficits. Nationally, in 2006 only 3-8.5% of ischemic stroke patients received the clot buster drug (recombinant tissue plasminogen activator), which must be given in a short window of time after initiation of stroke. For more than 90% of ischemic stroke patients, there exists no standardized treatment in the days following the stroke other than giving aspirin.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for effective therapies that minimize the damage from the event of brain injury, such as an ischemic stroke, or enhance the body's ability to recover from the adverse consequences of other forms of brain injury.